


I'll Be Home For Christmas

by JustAnotherWriter (N1ghtshade)



Series: Advent Calendar Gift Fics [14]
Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Fluff and Angst, Gen, army days, sandbox
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-15
Updated: 2018-12-15
Packaged: 2019-09-18 11:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,117
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16993977
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/N1ghtshade/pseuds/JustAnotherWriter
Summary: Jack, like everyone else in the Sandbox, waits every year for the Christmas letters and package from home. Well, almost everyone. His new EOD tech doesn't seem to be interested in mail call at all. Or in sharing a single memory from home...





	I'll Be Home For Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [impossiblepluto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/impossiblepluto/gifts).



Jack knows the Christmas box will be coming any day now. Momma will have gotten his package out weeks ago to make sure it gets to him before December 25. She makes the same brownies every year, the ones with chocolate chip cookie dough on top. They get a little broken up in transit but they’re still edible. 

But his favorite part is all the letters she crams into that box. From Grammaw, from aunts and uncles, the nieces and nephews and cousins. One of the younger ones, Evan, sent him a little toy soldier once with “Jack” scribbled on the little base in Sharpie. He loves those darn kids. And he misses getting to see them.

So when the box arrives, Jack tucks it into his bunk until he has enough time alone to give all the letters and cards the attention they deserve. He unwraps one of the brownies and eats it slowly, unfolding the first of the cards.

_ Jack, _

_ I’m glad the situation with your new tech worked out. I’m glad for him that he has someone like you watching his back. He couldn’t have better.  _

_ I hope we’ll see you in person next Christmas. You wouldn’t believe how big Laura’s kids are getting. They love coming to see the ranch, as a matter of fact Diego is getting really good at roping. He’s about to join the county roping team.  _

Jack turns the letter over and wishes the sand under his feet was from Texas, not Afghanistan, that the world smelled like mesquite and cattle rather than smoke and goats. 

He wipes the tears away fast when Carl’s Jr. walks in. He doesn’t need that annoying little bomb nerd getting on his case about being emotional. They might be good friends now, but the kid never lost his sarcastic teasing streak. 

He tosses the kid a brownie. “Hey, got a package from home. And you could use some of Momma’s cooking, skinny kid. For someone with a hamburger name, you got no meat on your bones at all.”

Mac glares at him, but starts eating the brownie, and Jack smirks at the expression on the kid’s face.  _ I’m gonna have to write back to Momma and tell her how much he loves her cooking. _

Jack sinks back onto the bunk, spreading out the letters and crayon drawings around him. He knows some guys feel even farther from home this Christmas. Coleman’s from Vermont; he must be missing the snow. But Texas just feels as far away right now as the moon.

That’s when it hits him, the kid doesn’t act like he’s missing a thing. He’s not hanging around mail call waiting for packages. He’s only ever gotten two letters the whole time Jack’s known him, which is almost a year now, and both of them were from one friend back home. He never talks about family; he never sits down with the other guys and shares any memories of holidays back home. It’s almost a contagion around the end of November; Jack’s been out on rotations with guys all the time who just spontaneously start rambling on about favorite memories of home and family. Sometimes he’s been the one doing the rambling. Doesn’t matter how closed off, how annoying, how strange the person is, seems like wanting to be out of this dust pit and home brings all of them together.

Except the kid. Mac doesn’t seem like he has any good memories of previous Christmases. Jack’s shared a couple of his own, on their last few bomb runs, but the kid doesn’t respond in kind.

The more he thinks about it, the more it bothers him. It gets under his skin to the point that that thought, that the kid might have such a screwed-over life that he doesn’t even have good holiday memories, bothers Jack more than thinking that he’s spending yet another Christmas away from his home and family. 

Finally, he just asks, point blank, in the Humvee on the way back from a rotation. “Hey Carl’s Jr., what’s the deal with Christmas for you?”

“Nothing.” The kid barely looks up from where he’s fiddling with some wire in his lap.

“That’s what I mean, kid. You act like it’s just another month, like there’s nothing special, nothing you miss, no one who cares about you back home.”

“There’s not much to miss. Just a friend from home. My mom’s dead, my dad’s gone, and my grandpa died last year.” He says it all so matter-of-factly that Jack’s heart squeezes. “I don’t have a family to miss. It just makes this job easier, I guess. No one I miss, and no one who misses me, so it doesn’t matter if I can get leave or not. Wouldn’t matter if I didn’t come back ever.”

“Hey hey hey.” Jack puts on the literal brakes, the Humvee screeching to a halt in a cloud of dust. “I don’t care what family you got, or don’t. I’m your family now kid, and I care a hell of a lot if you come back in one piece or not.” Mac’s eyes flick up to his, wide with surprise. “As long as I’m around, you’ve got someone who cares about you.” 

“It’s not safe to care.” Mac mumbles, and Jack can’t tell if he’s trying to warn Jack off, or if he’s trying to force himself not to accept Jack’s offer of acceptance.

“That’s the thing about family. It’s always a risk. You’re never gonna know if all they’re gonna do is hurt your heart.” He grins. “But there’s another thing about family. You don’t really choose them. They just fall into your life, some right from the start, some along the way. And you’re stuck with me whether you like it or not.”

The kid gives him a weak smile. “Does that mean if we’re family that I get to split those brownies equally?”

“Sure thing.” Jack grins. “On one condition, that the first Christmas we’re stateside, you come thank the cook in person. Sounds like you never had much of a family Christmas, and I can’t wait for you to experience the absolute insanity that is the Dalton family in one house for six hours.” 

“Deal.”

Jack can’t help smiling all the way home. He’s already planning the awesomeness of introducing Mac to his family. And he’s got to admit he’s also a little interested to see if he can get the kid to eat enough of those brownies at once that he’ll get a sugar rush.  _ Although I should probably hide anything I don’t want totally demolished first.  _ He does have a radio that is hopelessly malfunctioning... _ This could be fun... _


End file.
